- Title: JAPAN: Toyota workers react to news of Prius recall
- Date: 10th February 2010
- Summary: TOYOTA CITY, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 9, 2010) (REUTERS) "WELCOME TO TOYOTA CITY" SIGN WHITE PRIUS CAR DRIVING BY "PRIUS" BILLBOARD AT TOYOTA AUTO PLANT "TOYOTA" LOGO ASSEMBLED PRIUS CARS PARKED IN LOT FOR SHIPMENT PRIUS CARS TRUCK TRANSPORTING PRIUS CARS WORKERS ARRIVING AT FACTORY WORKERS AND FACTORY WORKERS WALKING IN FACTORY COMPOUND TOYOTA PLANT WORKER KAZUO AKATSUKA WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) KAZUO AKATSUKA, 55, TOYOTA FACTORY WORKER, SAYING: "I think the decision came a little too late, but now the recall is official and as a Toyota worker, I feel better." TOYOTA EMBLEMS ON CARS SILVER PRIUS CAR BEING UNLOADED AND PARKED PRIUS RUNNING ON STREET CARS PASSING TOYOTA SUBCONTRACTORS' FACTORIES (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) TORU USAMI, 50, TOYOTA SUBCONTRACTOR, SAYING: "All we can do is strive to do what each of us is able to do. We'll have to review our standards for both safety and quality." (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) NAOKI IKUTA, 36, TOYOTA SUBCONTRACTOR, SAYING: "The higher the bar's raised for quality, the more effort we must strive to make to satisfy our costumers' needs." TOYOTA WORKERS WALKING VARIOUS OF TOYOTA FACTORY
- Embargoed: 25th February 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Japan
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Industry,Transport
- Reuters ID: LVAC67XRSCG4RCA6X4KBYWA1SVG2
- Story Text: As Toyota's series of global recalls continue to tarnish its reputation for quality and reliability, auto industry workers in Toyota City pledged to make more efforts to ensure product safety on
Tuesday (February 9).
Just weeks after Toyota recalled more than eight million vehicles around the world for slipping floormats and sticky gas pedals, the world's largest automaker announced Tuesday that it was recalling nearly half a million of its flagship Prius and other hybrid cars for a software glitch in it's brake system.
"I think the decision came a little too late, but now the recall is official and as a Toyota worker, I feel better," said Kazuo Akatsuka, a 55-year-old logistic officer at Toyota's Tsutsumi plant.
Toyota will face further scrutiny on Wednesday (February 10), when its North America chief executive, Yoshi Inaba, testifies in front of the U.S. Congress at the House Oversight Committee Hearing in Washington DC.
It is also facing a potential rush of litigation for crashes linked to those problems and blamed for 19 deaths and numerous injuries in the United States over the past decade.
"All we can do is strive to do what each of us is able to do. We'll have to review our standards for both safety and quality," said 50-year-old Toru Usami, who works for a local auto parts factory contracted by Toyota.
"The higher the bar's raised for quality, the more effort we must strive to make to satisfy our costumers' needs," said another subcontractor, 36-year-old Naoki Ikuta who works at a Toyota-related metal factory.
The new Prius is sold in some 60 countries, with cumulative sales of almost 350,000 units.
The Prius has been the world's best-selling hybrid vehicle, helping Toyota grab 70 percent of the U.S. market for vehicles powered by a combination of an external-combustion engine and electric motor.
Meanwhile, complaints to U.S. safety regulators about 2010 Prius brake problems have jumped sharply since the Transportation Department announced a formal investigation last week.
Several complaint files total more than 1,000 reports from vehicle owners but a partial review of the documents submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found some duplicates, so the exact number is unclear.
U.S. safety authorities and members of the Obama administration have accused Toyota of responding too slowly to problems related to uncontrolled acceleration that have been linked to up to 19 crash deaths in the United States over the past decade.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologised on Friday (February 5) for the earlier series of recalls. He said the company was rushing to reach a decision on the Prius and was taking the unusual step of bringing in outside experts to review quality controls.
Last week, Toyota faced its first U.S. class-action lawsuit stemming from complaints of faulty brakes of its top-selling Prius hybrid model, which the automaker is to recall.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday, seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court order requiring Toyota to repair a braking defect that the named plaintiff, Elaine Miller, says makes driving her 2010 Prius dangerous. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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